In the year 2016, Pope Francis raised what had been a Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene to a Feast with proper readings. While it has taken almost two thousand years, the Church is finally recognizing that this woman is not who many have thought she was. Last year, Pope Francis took another step which indirectly relates to the identity of this woman by raising the Memorial of St. Martha to a new Memorial that remembers Martha, her sister Mary, and Lazarus, all of them identified by the name of the town in which they resided, Bethany. For so many years, she was thought to be the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus with costly oil. She was identified as a sinful woman.
It is rather easy to understand how the Church misidentified Mary Magdalene. First of all, Mary, or Miriam, was a very common name in 1st century Israel and dates back to the time when Israel was enslaved by Egypt. The Book of Exodus records that the sister of Moses bore this name. She is credited with saving her brother when Pharaoh decreed that all male babies were to be suffocated at birth. The Gospels mention at least four different women bearing this name.
Secondly, sin and disease were often equated in this culture. We are told that Jesus drove seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. In their minds, the people of that time would have looked upon a woman so afflicted as being a great sinner. However, none of the Gospels name Mary as the woman caught in adultery or as the woman who is accused by Simon the Pharisee of being a sinful woman.
By contrast, all four of the Gospels identify Mary as the first witness of the Resurrection and the woman who brought the news of that Resurrection to Simon Peter and the apostles. In iconography she is depicted as a woman holding an egg, an ancient symbol for the Resurrection. She stands before us as a woman of faith and a woman of great courage. While the apostles are locked in the Upper Room for fear of the Jews, she leads a group of intrepid women to the tomb.
Her grief after witnessing the crucifixion of her Master, so evident in the Gospels, is also a sign of the great love that she has for him. Finally, the Gospel of John records that she came to recognize Jesus at the sound of his voice, placing her among the sheep who know the voice of the Good Shepherd.
As we celebrate this faithful woman today, let us embrace her as the example of a woman of faith, a woman of courage, and a woman who brings the Good News of the Risen Lord to others.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator